The country is sitting on a social volcano and unless measures are taken to minimise the revenue earning gap between the rich and poor, India will turn into yet another Greece opined speakers at The Hindu Business Line Budget Talk.
Speakers expressed concern over reducing contribution of the agriculture sector to the country’s GDP from 56.4 per cent just after Independence to 13 per cent last year and a projected 9 per cent next fiscal. One of the strong recommendations of the experts’ panel was measures to improve the manufacturing process through encouragement of innovation and indigenous technology development.
At the Budget Talk organised for students of Commerce and MBA in P.B. Siddhartha College of Arts and Science on Saturday in association with Indian Oil, the title sponsors and Element School of Visual Arts, experts drawn from agriculture, banking, industry, academics, chartered accountancy put forward their analysis on the Union Budget presented by P. Chidambaram.
While former member of Rajya Sabha Yelamanchili Shivaji took objection to liberalisation of agri-products imports and the restrictions on the movement of rice internally, he looked forward to an Open General License regime for giving impetus to the agri sector. The change of nomenclature of agriculture loans to include agri-based industrial activity would not help farmers in any way to reap the fruits of Rs 7 lakh crore loans to be given in this sector.
Migration of rural population to the urban pockets was another area that needs attention with the development of infrastructure in the rural areas to generate jobs, Dr Shivaji said.
The loan recovery regime had to improve in the country to help banking sector go all out and help the farmers, said State Bank of Hyderabad General Manager J. Sitapathi Rao. Allowing banks to market all brands of life and non-life insurance products will improve the non-interest income of the banks, he said. The proposed infusion of Rs 3.5 lakh crore in five years into public sector banks will see Rs 14,000 crore coming next financial year, which will improve the health of all banks, he added.
The Siddhartha Academy President N. Venkateswarlu said that it was a balanced budget and the Finance Minister had to keep in view the coming general elections in 2014. While pointing out that market reacted negatively, he hoped greater focus will be on employment generation for the youth.
The Mithra Group of Companies Director M.V. Srinivas described the downturn in exports as the major reason for inflation and showed concern over the meagre foreign exchange reserves. The other speakers were Chartered Accountant A. Sheshadry, who dwelt at length on the nitty-gritty of Income-Tax provisions and MBA Department Head Rajesh Jampala, who took note of lack of regulatory mechanism for several aspects in the country. He said skill upgradation fund of Rs 1,000 crore would go a long way.